


what makes an end the final ending?

by W1F1N1GHTM4R3



Series: Lumith Danganronpa [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Besides little one-off things connected to this au that I couldn’t post yet, Canon Compliant, Do I know what I’m doing? Probably not, F/F, M/M, Multi, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sort Of, but anyway if this isn’t great that’s why, but the main plot mostly remains unchanged, mostly because it will ruin some of the surprise I have planned, theyre all glowy bug aliens now mdudes, this is my first danganronpa fic after all
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-04-24 09:00:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19170019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/W1F1N1GHTM4R3/pseuds/W1F1N1GHTM4R3
Summary: Makoto Naegi stares up at the massive, impressive school in front of him, awestruck. He still can’t believe it, he’s a student of Hope’s Peak Academy! Him, just an average guy, simple gold markings and ridiculously unbalanced antennae, somehow earned himself the title of “Ultimate Lucky Student”, and now, here he is, about to enter the school.————Nothing is as it seems, death is not the end, and secrets are hiding around every corner, just out of reach.





	1. Prologue: Seeds of Despair

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, this is my first time working with a lot of these characters so... apologies if I don’t do a great job yet. I’m still figuring it out, but I’ve had this idea bouncing around for a month or so and I’m finally putting it into writing!
> 
> Anyway, I should provide a quick summary of what lumiths are, because that’s what everyone is here: they’re an alien species of my own creation, sorta like a weird blend of a bug and a human, but extra bioluminescent. Every lumith has unique markings (with the exception of identical twins, who will have the same), although the difference between two may be minor sometimes, which are the main source of their glow. Certain shapes of markings determine the birth “gender” of a lumith (although they have a looser concept of it than we humans do, and it’s a lot more based on personal choice in the end, so trans lumiths are fairly common and nb lumiths aren’t super unusual either, although less common): squared or rounded markings are typically “masculine”, while pointed markings or a mix of types are typically “feminine”. Things like circles/dots and connected ribbons with no defined end (whether angular corners or curved edges, doesn’t matter) are actually neutral, and may apply to either side! They also have antennae, typically simple upright ones, although bendy or pronged ones aren’t uncommon, and those glow too. Glow brightness can vary a little naturally, but also may intensify or dim with strong emotions. Glow colors are ALWAYS bright colors, with the exception of due to serious sickness (as we’ll see with Komaeda later on) or on a very, very rare occasion, it just happens to be pale (like Chiaki is)
> 
> Occasionally, a lumith may have minor magic powers or unusual features (I’ll say this one since it’s not really a spoiler, Hina has small, partially functional gills, which really don’t do very much for her, but that’s just a thing that exists), due to the fact that they’re naturally very tied to the magic flow of their world. Powers and mutations don’t usually run in families though. Colors do though.
> 
> Also, they’re on average, taller than humans, although that generally doesn’t affect much here. Everyone’s just a little taller, that’s all!
> 
> So that’s my attempt to keep this summary of lumiths from being insanely long. It’s still really long, sorry. Just uh, look at my vault of character designs for this, that might explain things a little bit more: https://sta.sh/2mubjvmfe2j (note: as of posting this there’s a small mistake in jack’s design, since her markings are supposed to be near identical to toko’s, but I forgot a few parts when drawing her apparently. Maybe I’ll fix that eventually, lol)
> 
> Although this will be approximately following canon for a while, im gonna give the chapters different names, just because I want to.
> 
> But anyway, I’ll shut up now and let you read.

Makoto Naegi stares up at the massive, impressive school in front of him, awestruck. He still can’t believe it, he’s a student of Hope’s Peak Academy! Him, just an average guy, simple gold markings and ridiculously unbalanced antennae, somehow earned himself the title of “Ultimate Lucky Student”, and now, here he is, about to enter the school.

But he can’t bring himself to take those last few steps in yet. So he stares up at the building until the fear and awe die down a bit.

And as he takes that first step inside, a wave of dizziness slams into him, and he blacks out.

————

He wakes up face-first on a desk in a classroom he doesn’t recognize, but what he assumes to be a classroom inside Hope’s Peak. Strangely, where there should be windows to look outside with, there are instead huge, thick plates of metal. But otherwise, it seems to just be a normal classroom. He’s not sure how he ended up here. Maybe someone carried him here after he blacked out? He’s not that tall or heavy, it wouldn’t be a challenge for most people to move him.

In front of him is a note. The handwriting is unfamiliar, but it says to go to the entrance hall, and that everyone else will be there.

Everyone else? That must mean the rest of his classmates.

It can’t hurt to go look, right? Hopefully, if it isn’t safe, his supposed “luck” will protect him. Not that he’s ever felt all that lucky.

And luckily, it does seem like it’s all his classmates gathered there, since none of them seem to be far off from his age (except maybe that tall guy with the crazy hair and green markings. He seems a few years older than the rest). Fourteen other people gathered around. Most of them are talking with each other, save for the girl with warm purple markings and antennae about as completely lopsided as Makoto’s own, and the guy dressed very, very nicely (like he has a lot of money) with jade green (on the bluer side, notably) markings. A different purple girl, one with a much cooler shade, is sticking to the edges of the group as well, but she is still talking to everyone, at least.

Only one color catches his eye as familiar. The dim glow of cerulean, radiating from two-pronged antennae. Sayaka Maizono, the lead of a famous idol group, and Makoto’s former classmate from middle school.

Some of the others draw his eye too, from the tiny girl with markings far brighter than someone like her looks like she should have (but she can’t even be more than five feet tall!), to the very round boy chatting very animatedly, to the giant woman with jagged, but very soft pink, patterns.

Makoto decides to introduce himself.

Throughout introductions, he realizes how many of the others he actually had heard of before, besides Sayaka (who was, shockingly, thrilled to see him. He can barely believe she even remembered him), obviously. The giant woman is Sakura Ogami, a world-famous martial artist. The tiny girl is Chihiro Fujisaki, an extremely talented programmer Makoto has read things about before. A girl with crimson, lace-like patterning introduces herself as Celestia Ludenberg, who is supposedly a famous gambler (Makoto has his doubts on how much of what she says is true, but he _has_ still heard of her before). The jade-marked guy almost walks away as soon as Makoto approached him, but he does very briefly introduce himself as Byakuya Togami (and if Makoto didn’t recognize that name, he’d wonder what came over him. The Togami Corporation is _powerful_ ). Junko Enoshima (who doesn’t seem like her photos, her patterns a little too bright, a little too curved, but like she says, that could just be from her photos being edited to hell and back), Mondo Owada, Toko Fukawa, Leon Kuwata, Aoi Asahina, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Hifumi Yamada, Yasuhiro Hagakure, honestly, who hasn’t Makoto heard of before?

Well, actually, he’s never heard of Kyoko Kirigiri before, but that’s what the lavender girl introduces herself as. Unlike the others, she seems to have no recollection of what “ultimate” skill she has. Makoto isn’t sure what kind of ultimate she is either, of course, people can be hard to read by their looks alone, but if he had to guess, it has to be something where looking professional would be important, if her manner of dress is anything to go by.

Shortly after everyone seems to have finished with introductions, the monitor on the wall flicks to life and the speaker turns on with a static crackle. On the screen is... a teddy bear? Split down the middle in color and appearance, one side white and innocent-looking with a small, round eye and friendly smile, the other side black and menacing, with a fanged, berserk grin and a jagged slash where the other eye should be. It gently taps a microphone in front of it, saying “testing, testing!” as it does, until everyone looks up at the screen. It then giggles, something like “puhuhuhu!”, before addressing the group. “This is a school announcement! Everyone, please report to the gym for the opening ceremony!” it cheers. The screen and sound then shut off with a resounding click.

Everyone looks around nervously at each other, but with nothing better to do, they set off for the gym.

————

The gym is, well, an ordinary school gym. A podium is set up on the stage across the room, presumably to do with the “opening ceremony”. Once the final person enters the room, a mechanical whirring starts up, and then the same bear as before pops out behind the podium to stand on it.

“Hellooooooo, everyone! I am your headmaster, Monokuma! And today marks the first day of the rest of your lives, here at Hope’s Peak Academy,” it announces.

A confused murmur ripples through the crowd, before someone yells out, “what do you mean, rest of our lives?”

“Well, of course, I mean the rest of your life, however long that may be! Of course, that might not be all that much longer, considering your only way out.” The fanged side of its grin intensifies further with that.

“And what is this “only way out” you speak of?” Another person (Kyoko?) asks.

If a mechanical bear’s eyes could sparkle with excitement, Monokuma’s certainly would be right now. “Murder, of course! Kill one of your classmates and get away with it, and you’re free to leave this school!”

Horrified whispers ripple through the crowd. “Is it insane?” “Why would anyone kill each other?” “I want to leave!”

Mondo stomps up to the podium and pulls Monokuma down, preparing to drop it on the ground and destroy it. Everyone watches him as a beeping begins to echo through the room. Kyoko shouts “throw it!” repeatedly, until Mondo follows her command just in time to avoid Monokuma self-destructing.

That was a close call. Way too close for Makoto’s liking.

And just when they think Monokuma is gone for good, it pops right back up behind the podium again.

“First of all, Mister Owada, that was very mean! Second of all, I am a he, not an it, Miss Kirigiri! And third of all, attacking the headmaster is _strictly_ against the rules, and the next time someone does that, expect a proper punishment!” he growls. “Speaking of the rules though, I’d recommend reading them over on your school-issued e-handbooks, so we avoid any other risks of anyone breaking the rules!”

Makoto then notices the unfamiliar weight in his jacket pocket. Huh, when did that get there? He pulls it out and opens it up to read over the rules quickly. Normal things, like when nighttime is and that everyone is only allowed to sleep in the dorms and no giving someone your e-handbook. Strange things, like something about a trial after a “blackened” is created and all the mentions of punishment, which Makoto doesn’t understand why.

“Aaaaanyway, that about covers that! Follow the maps on your e-handbooks to find your way to the dorms, and have a good night! Enjoy the first night of the rest of your lives here, puhuhuhu!” And with that, Monokuma disappears behind the podium again.

Everyone has fallen silent in shock.

Then the monitor on the wall turns on, with Monokuma appearing there and exclaiming, “This is a school announcement! It is now 10 p.m., and is officially nighttime! Soon, the doors to the dining hall will be locked, and access after that is strictly prohibited. Good night everyone, sleep tight, and don’t let the bed bugs bite!”

Celestia is the first to break the silence after that. “I have a proposition to make, to prevent any possible murders. A rule of our own. Once it is nighttime, we all stay in our dorm rooms. That way, no one can be caught off guard and alone at night, vulnerable to any possible attackers.”

This gets everyone talking, discussing it, with mostly positive opinions on it.

Slowly, everyone begins to trickle out, on their way to their rooms.

Makoto leaves towards the end of the group, in no real hurry to go anywhere. As he discovers, his dorm room is fairly plain, besides the handful of personal decorations he brought with him before, already set up for him. It’s fine.

He briefly searches the drawers to find something else to change into for the night (he finds... his own clothes there. He doesn’t remember bringing all them with him though), then spends another moment considering what to do next. He decides he’s too tired to really investigate more right now, overwhelmed by the chaos of earlier. He just lies down in bed, and drifts off to sleep.


	2. Chapter One: Falling into Distrust (Daily Life)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto and his classmates settle into their new lives at Hope’s Peak Academy.

The night is rough, and he’s restless, followed by strange dreams of Monokuma and a dread that something will go wrong.

————

Makoto is woken up by the sound of a school bell, followed by the click of the monitor activating. Monokuma announces that it’s 7 a.m., and therefore morning, before the screen shuts off again.

He didn’t sleep all too well, so it takes a couple minutes before he begins properly waking up and getting out of bed and ready. Just barely as he finishes, the doorbell to his room rings.

He opens the door to familiar blue. “Good morning, Makoto!” Sayaka chirps. Man, she’s excited for so early in the morning. “The others noticed you weren’t out of your room yet and asked me to come check if you were awake yet and let you know we’re all meeting in the dining hall this morning to talk.”

“Okay,” he replies.

Neither does anything for a couple moments, until Makoto breaks the silence. “Could you... get out of my doorway? So I can leave, y’know.”

Sayaka laughs slightly, and takes a couple steps away so Makoto can leave his room. “Sorry!”

She leads him to the dining hall, a mostly unnecessary gesture since he saw where it was earlier, and the sounds of chatter drifting out of the room would have lead him there sooner or later anyway if he didn’t know where it was. 

And sure enough, everyone else is there already. Most of them are eating breakfast or chatting with each other, and no one notices the two walk in until Sayaka greets everyone. Great. Makoto’s late, and couldn’t even sneak in unnoticed. Just freaking _great_.

At least no one really seems too mad about it. It’s not like he was ridiculous late anyway. Once everyone realizes he’s here, they go right back to what they were doing.

He’s given a little while to eat and settle in with everyone before a discussion of what to do next comes up. They’re all trapped in this school, but there has to be _something_ to do besides kill each other. They just don’t know what yet.

So a plan is decided on: everyone will spread out and explore the school as much as they can, search for any possible way out, and once they finish searching, return here to the dining hall to tell everyone what they’ve found. And with that, everyone sets out on their own.

————

Makoto himself doesn’t do that much in-depth searching. Maybe it’s just because he doesn’t want to get in the way of anyone else, and there’s already people searching about everywhere that they can get into. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t think he’s all that good at investigating.

Either way, he doesn’t find anything new himself. Instead, he’s collecting information from everyone as they leave the room they were in, and going in there to do a quick double check, so he can confirm if what everyone says is the truth or not.

He ends up being the last to arrive. Again.

After the whole class gets their turn to share what they found, a few things become clear: there are higher floors, or at least a second floor, but the stairs are gated off for now, behind bars no one has gotten through yet, there is no way out yet, the plates covering every window are essentially unbreakable, even to someone like Sakura, and the floor they are currently on has basically everything necessary for daily life.

They really are expected to live here forever, huh.

————

For the rest of the day, as well as the next couple days, things are pretty relaxed. Makoto takes the time to go around and hang out with his new classmates, starting to get to know them. Sayaka seeks him out specifically a couple times to spend time with him (something he can barely believe). One of the times with her, he ends up bringing back a gold-coated display sword.

(She thinks it will help in case of an emergency. He doesn’t think he’s in any danger, but takes it anyway.)

And then, Monokuma summons everyone to the gym.

————

“Well, well, well, this is getting boring,” the mechanical bear whines. “No one’s killing each other! Where’s your sense of fun?”

Nobody gives him the satisfaction of a response.

“Anyway, I’ve got a _little_ something to get this game in motion. It’s time for a motive, everyone!”

_A motive?_

“Head down to the A/V room, a surprise is waiting for you there.” Monokuma laughs, and drops back behind the podium.

Everyone looks suspiciously at each other, confused by what Monokuma could possibly have made as a motive.

Only one way to find out, and that’s to go there.

————

In the A/V room, a cardboard box full of DVDs waits for them. Makoto reaches into the box and pulls out a disc, labeled with a name. Not his though, one of the others. He puts it back and shifts through the rest until he does find one with his name, then takes it over to one of the small monitors to put it in.

As the screen flickers to life, three familiar faces look back at him. His parents, and his sister, Komaru. At first, all three of them are congratulating him on getting into Hope’s Peak, cheering him on, all happy and safe.

Then, the screen goes dark, before awakening again with a new scene.

The same place in his home, but torn and ruined. And abandoned.

Monokuma’s voice echoes out, “want to know what happened? Find out after graduation!”

And then the screen shuts down entirely.

Makoto stares in horror at the screen. What did Monokuma do to his family? That can’t be real, right?

When he finally breaks out of the trance, he scans the room. Everyone looks transfixed with the same looks of horror and shock, but some have far dimmer glows than usual, fear shutting them down, others glowing brighter with fear sending them into a panic-fueled overdrive. A couple of them are even crying. Makoto wonders what everyone else saw to scare them like that.

As the video effects wear off of everyone, the nighttime announcement sounds.

Makoto returns to his room, but before he can drift off to sleep, his doorbell rings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m ending the daily life a little early for a specific reason that will make a LOT more sense once I finish the next chapter! That next one will be really short though probably, but there’s a reason for that too! And the short length means I might have that update ready later, although I might hold off to wait and update tomorrow instead if I’m finished early.


	3. Chapter One: Falling into Distrust (Murder)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first victim of the killing game falls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Perspective switch time! This will happen with every “murder” chapter, which will be (usually, hopefully) a shorter chapter written from the perspective of the victim.

Sayaka Maizono finds herself fighting back tears as she watches her motive video. Her best friends, her group mates, dead or unconscious on the stage.

Everything then clicks.

She needs to get out.

So she comes up with a plan.

————

Just after getting ready for the night, she slips into the hall and rings the doorbell of the room next to her own, Makoto’s room. She feels a little bad for having to manipulate their friendship for this (at one point, wanting to be his friend was genuine. Now it’s all to her advantage), but she needs his room for this.

Thank goodness he isn’t asleep yet, as he answers the door relatively quickly. He’s tired, worn out from the long day, usually energetic gold glow toned down a few notches, but willing to let her in anyway.

And then the acting comes in. “Makoto, would it be okay if I stayed in your room tonight?” she asks him.

“Uh... I don’t think I’d be comfortable sleeping in the same room as you, no offense or anything,” he replies.

“That’s okay. Maybe we could just switch rooms? I give you my key, you give me yours, and we swap the keys back tomorrow morning.”

The hesitation slides away. “Yeah, I guess that would work.”

He holds his hand out for her key, and she gives it to him. “My key is on the table over there,” he points to it, “and I should warn you, just in case for the morning, my bathroom door gets stuck in the frame. You have to push the whole door up while turning the knob to get it open.”

Oh, _that’s_ nice to know. Just in case.

“Well, good night!” he says as he turns to head towards the door.

Phase one, complete.

Next, she pulls the kitchen knife out from its hiding place under her clothes and hides it under the sheets instead.

Then, she begins writing out a note on Makoto’s notepad, for her target. Someone easy to lure in, easy to trick, and hopefully, easy to kill.

She tears the sheet off the pad, and goes back into the hall. She slides the note under the door of her target, then turns back and swaps the nameplates of her room and Makoto’s room.

The trap is set, now she just has to wait.

And soon enough, the doorbell rings. At the door, her target. Leon Kuwata.

She lets him in, and pretends to be happy to see him. Carefully, she lures him towards the bed, then reaches under the sheets and grabs the knife again.

She lunges at him.

But he grabs the fake sword, and blocks the knife just in time. The sword falls out of its sheath, but he keeps trying to stop the knife with the sheath.

She keeps chasing him around the room, failing too many times to count and scoring the walls with slashes.

But she never lands a single substantial hit.

Eventually, Leon gets more aggressive. He backs Sayaka into a corner, and manages to snap the wrist of her knife-wielding hand, forcing her to drop the knife.

He raises the sheath again, prepared to knock her over the head with it, knock her out, and probably kill her.

She ducks out of the way, towards the bathroom door. Remembering Makoto’s instructions, she slams her body weight into it as she turns the knob, then shuts the door instantly behind her.

Leon wiggles the handle before Sayaka hears his footsteps trail away. But she can’t just leave now. He’s going to come back, she knows it. He thinks it’s a girl’s bedroom after all, and the girls have locks on their bathroom doors.

He’s probably going to get something to unlock it with.

She won’t be safe for long.

And sure enough, his footsteps return quickly.

She watches as the doorknob falls away, and watches Leon force the door open, her knife in his hand.

He charges her, plunging the knife deep into her chest. She staggers back into the wall, and collapses onto the floor. Blood splatters everywhere around her.

He barely looks at her as her life slips away.

One of the final things she sees before being dropped into the almost complete darkness of the bathroom is Leon’s fiery orange glow.

Sayaka knows one thing, and that’s if she dies, which certainly seems to be what is happening right now, she’s going to take him down with her, one way or another. So she dips a finger in her blood (ugh, that’s gross), and reaches back behind her to try and write Leon’s name on the wall behind her.

She’s almost crossed the “N” as her final grip on life fades.

The world fades to black.

————

Sayaka Maizono wakes up somewhere unfamiliar, with an ache in her chest, hazy mind, and clothes torn and stained in blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ;)


	4. Chapter One: Falling into Distrust (Deadly Life)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A body has been discovered, another body is created, and Makoto has to prepare to fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it’s been a hot minute since I updated this, huh? Fell out of the swing of writing, but I do have a better grasp of my endgame goal now! And I’m back on this so hopefully I’ll be updating a little quicker soon? But I can’t guarantee anything yet.

While Makoto hasn’t slept well at all since arriving at the school, this night has been the worst so far. Maybe he was finally getting used to his own room, and now the switch has thrown him off.

He doesn’t feel great in the morning, but the light sleep he’s been in and out of all night means he’s up and ready by the announcement. He even beats some of the others to the dining hall, rather than being towards the end of the group!

As anyone he beat filters in, there’s a strange lack of familiar cerulean walking through the door. Sayaka isn’t late, ever, as far as he knows. So where is she?

Some of the others take notice of her missing as well, and Makoto offers to search for her. He sincerely hopes she’s still in his room, and accidentally overslept really badly.

————

His door is open.

Not very far, but it is open a crack.

Weird.

He opens it the rest of the way, and looks into _disaster_.

It’s like a fight broke out in his room, the walls and floor torn at, nothing where it should be, everything so dreadfully _wrong_.

_And no Sayaka._

He continues to search his room, and notices the bathroom door is slightly open too. He pushes the door open further.

A body, blue markings no longer glowing, knife lodged deep in her chest, blood everywhere, against the wall in the shower.

Sayaka Maizono is dead.

And the horror of her body makes Makoto black out.

————

~~Junko Enoshima~~ Mukuro Ikusaba freezes up when the body discovery announcement plays. A few minutes ago, a couple of her classmates left to find Makoto, who had left before that, and never returned.

It wasn’t supposed to start this soon. It was all fine before, wasn’t it? No one was angry at each other. The motive was cruel, but no one truly seemed upset enough to be driven to murder. Why is someone dead?

Who’s dead? Makoto? Sayaka? One of the others?

Mukuro may be a killer in her own right, but this is different. Someone she doesn’t know, she could kill in a heartbeat if ordered to. But someone she knows, someone like her classmates, she’d never wish them dead.

~~Her sister is another situation altogether. Especially with this hell having her name written all over it. If it could save the others, she wouldn’t hesitate to harm or kill Junko.~~

Over the speakers, Monokuma tells everyone to go to the gym.

As the horror and shock wears off of everyone, they slowly begin to make their ways to the gym.

The last ones to arrive are Makoto and his retrieval group, although Makoto is unconscious and being carried. That means... Sayaka is dead. They weren’t necessarily close, but it doesn’t stop Mukuro from feeling bad.

Everyone shuffles around awkwardly, tension heavy in the room, as they wait for something to happen. A small discussion starts up about where Makoto was. Apparently, he was in his room, fainted in front of his bathroom, and Sayaka’s body was found in there. No one wants to talk about the condition of that, though.

Eventually, Makoto wakes up in a panic, spluttering something about a dead body, before shifting to confusion as he realizes he’s no longer where he was.

And then, Monokuma pops up with a laugh. A casual, amused laugh, as if this isn’t about the girl who just died.

Fury begins to boil inside Mukuro, drowning out Monokuma’s explanation of what’s now going to happen with the class trials. She’s certain, if her markings could change colors, she’d be blazing scarlet, but she can’t do that. Instead, her intense, electric blue flickers brighter and brighter.

Then, her anger explodes. Any pretense of her being a model is dropped as she prepares to attack.

She charges up to the stage, grabs Monokuma, and drops him to the floor. She’s not armed, but hell if she can’t improvise, she thinks to herself, as she slams a heeled boot onto Monokuma’s chest, pressing her weight down. The metal crumples under her.

Only as Monokuma calls for something called “the Spears of Gungnir” does it process that, in attacking Monokuma, she has broken a rule.

Metal spears shoot out of the floor, piercing through Mukuro’s chest and legs. It’s not a quick death, the killing blow saved to be the final one to hit. Her legs give out first, dropping her to the ground before it ends.

~~Of course Junko wouldn’t spare her. Why would her sister, driven to create despair, leave her to live? Maybe there was a tiny sliver of hope she’d be spared, but that hope died the moment the first spear hit her.~~

She gasps out a final breath, and the world fades out.

————

Sayaka Maizono stares in confusion as a girl dressed like Junko, with the same death injuries as Junko, but who isn’t Junko (if her short, dark hair and different manner of moving is anything to go by), wakes up on the floor behind her.

————

Makoto stares in horror as Junko gives up struggling, slumping lifelessly to the ground.

Monokuma cheers “happy investigating!” in the background before disappearing again.

Kyoko barely takes a moment to recover before pulling out her e-handbook to read the Monokuma File, and gets ready to work.

The investigation must begin.

————

Everyone is hesitant to let Makoto investigate, but he can’t blame them. Sayaka’s body was found in his room, after all. He knows he’s not at fault, they don’t. He needs the evidence to prove his side.

Luckily, one person is willing to help him. Or at least actively go against him. Kyoko claimed she would not pick a killer until she finds the evidence to prove who it is, and therefore not attempt to interfere with his investigation unless she sees him trying to sabotage anything.

But that’s what Mondo and Sakura are here for anyway, to guard the crime scene and make sure the killer can’t hide or destroy evidence in the room.

Makoto doesn’t really know what he’s doing, if he’s being totally honest. He’s never had to deal with anything even _remotely_ like this before.

He’s kind of in shock, kind of terrified, and kind of desperate. He needs to prove he’s innocent, but he doesn’t know how to do it.

Kyoko seems to understand what she’s doing, though, and is certainly willing to help him along with the dead-body-searching stuff, but nothing else.

He just searches his room for any important details he can find (his lint roller was used, the doorknob is mostly unscrewed from the bathroom door, and the display sword is missing gold dust in slightly hand-shaped prints), then continues elsewhere for any hints he can find (he notices his nameplate isn’t quite lined up right anymore, learns some details from the night before, discovers the source of the knife, and finds some suspicious items by the trash).

Then, time runs out, and the class is called to a new room.

Makoto is still scrambling for any last clues he can find, any other scraps of hope he can get to save himself, and is, yet again, the last to arrive. But together, the class enters the elevator, and descends to begin their first class trial.

It’s up to him to save himself and the rest of the class. He can barely think straight with the constant chaos of the day, the horror and the fear and the danger, but it’s now or never. If he fails, it’s all over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The mukuro section was longer than initially intended but I realized it would be hard to switch perspectives mid-scene or she’d barely get any time in the focus so I switched earlier and rolled with it. Anyway, next time, it’s TRIAL TIME!


End file.
